Linda Kathleen (Porter) Nissley

Linda Kathleen (Porter) Nissley, 70, died of Alzheimer’s disease in Douglassville, PA, on April 8, 2021. She was an upbeat, unflappable jill of all trades — a wife, a mother, a nurse — who did it all, and did it well.

Linda was born on August 28, 1950, in Lancaster, PA. She grew up on a farm, a true tomboy — and for the rest of her life, she remained tough and unafraid of getting her hands dirty. Linda particularly enjoyed participating in 4H, collecting bugs, and shooting barn rats (well, aside from the one time she shot through the power cable, resulting in a visit from the electrician).

In 1968, Linda graduated from Penn Manor High School, after which she matriculated into nursing school at the Reading Hospital. She completed her degree in 1971, and worked as a nurse at Reading until her retirement four decades later.

In 1972, Linda married Thomas Jay Nissley, a young man who’d worked on her family’s farm since high school. They bought a house in Reiffton and welcomed two sons. Linda was a devoted, no-nonsense type of mom: She wouldn’t let you leave the table until you’d cleaned your plate (ask her kids about the infamous tomato incident) and she was a loyal adherent of the “shake it off / suck it up” method of healing injuries.

Linda had high expectations for her kids because she had high expectations for herself. She was incredibly hardworking, often pulling third shift and returning to the house as her kids were eating breakfast. She participated in every side job imaginable, from Amway to Discovery Toys, and even had a paper route — as a grown woman.

Like her husband, Linda was the kind of person who did everything (besides, apparently, sleep). In addition to her roles as a mother, nurse, and basket collector, she was a talented piano player and dedicated phone talker. At one point, she even took up the oboe. She was always working on some sort of project, be it sewing new curtains or making her children’s Halloween costumes.

One of Linda’s biggest and most bountiful projects was her garden, in which she grew everything from corn to lettuce to way too many tomatoes. Late summers were for canning pears and peaches, making strawberry jam, and filling every available surface with zucchini bread. She didn’t do anything halfway — including baking — and often made dozens of pies or batches of cookies at a time.

Linda also enjoyed singing in the choir and hosting dinner parties for her beloved church community, as well as decorating to the nines for Christmas, complete with a tiny Dickensian village and pounds of raspberry trifle and pumpkin roll. With selflessness as her default mode, Linda spent the rest of her “free time” serving others: caring for elderly neighbors, volunteering on medical missions trips, and babysitting for immigrant parents as they learned English.

In 2018, several years after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, Linda moved into Keystone Villa of Douglassville. There, she tested the staff’s endless patience with her strong personality, standing on chairs to un-decorate for the holidays or remove inferior store-bought curtains, and surprising every caregiver with her inexplicably powerful grip — we like to think she loved them so much she just didn’t want to let them go.

Linda will be remembered as two endearing characters rolled into one powerhouse of a woman: a determined farm girl who could kill a groundhog without blinking, a cheery caregiver who was constantly thinking of others. She somehow managed to blend those contrasting personalities together effortlessly — just like all of the other million things she did. It was one of the countless ways she impressed us, and one of the countless reasons she will never be forgotten.

Linda is predeceased by her parents, Edgar and Ruth (Karr) Porter; her husband of 48 years, Thomas Jay Nissley; and her brother, Kenneth Porter. She is survived by her children, Andrew Nissley (Laci) of West Lawn, PA, and Patrick Nissley (Sarah) of Macungie, PA; her brothers, Glenn Porter (Sandy) of Waxhaw, NC, and Gary Porter (Sylvia) of Newport News, VA; her sister-in-law Kris Porter; a host of loving in-laws and friends; and our extended family at Keystone Villa.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the staff of Auman's Inc. Funeral Home, Reiffton. Services and burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to the Alzheimer’s Association at https://act.alz.org/goto/LindaNissley.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.aumansinc.com for the Nissley family.